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In a House Judiciary hearing today, Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Ken Wainstein testified in support of the Administration's request to give the telecom companies a 'get out of jail free' card for their participation in warrantless wiretapping. Wainstein breathlessly warned that the telecoms might otherwise face "crushing liability." But the statutory penalties for warrantless wiretapping are relatively small per person -- even if AT&T was ordered to pay the maximum penalty, a few hundred illegal wiretaps would amount to less than a rounding error in the phone companies' quarterly statements (AT&T reported revenues of $29.4 billion for the quarter ending June 30). If the NSA was truly limiting its spying to suspected terrorists, the potential liability would be like an annoying gnat on an elephant. So why are the companies so worried?

EFF is hosting a one-day session on October 10, 2007 for Web 2.0 workers who handle issues arising from users and user-generated content.

Does your interactive company have to contend with the maze of laws dealing with user privacy and publishing user content? Want to do the right thing by the online community that gives your business value, and still fulfill your legal obligations? Let us help. Our Mountain View Bootcamp will let front-line staff meet and question lawyers from the EFF and the top tech attorneys about the laws governing internet content, from the DMCA to ECPA to the CDA.

While many have noted that this is bad news for Linux users, it's also bad for Windows and Mac users. iTunes (the software, not the store) has built a considerable lead in the "media jukebox" category on both sides of the Windows-Mac divide. This latest move looks like an effort by Apple to consolidate and hold that beachhead, blocking competitors from entering the market and leaving consumers on all platforms with fewer choices.

Qualified candidates should have at least four years of legal experience, with knowledge in patent law and at least one other IP specialty (copyright, trademark, trade secret). Litigation experience is preferred, including significant experience managing cases, both overall case strategy and day-to-day projects and deadlines. Candidates should have good communication skills and interest in working with a team of highly motivated lawyers and activists in a hard-working nonprofit environment. Strong writing and analytical skills as well as the ability to be self-motivated and focused are essential. Tech savviness and familiarity with Internet civil liberties and high tech public interest issues preferred. This position is based in San Francisco.

Interested applicants should submit a resume, writing sample, and references to ipjob@eff.org.

National Security Letters (NSLs) are in the news a lot lately. Earlier in the year, a Justice Department report found that abuses of this powerful investigation tool were rampant, despite repeated statements to the contrary by Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. Then, documents obtained by EFF under the Freedom of Information Act exposed chronic misuses of NSLs, as well as other illegal demands that phone companies provide information on a target?s "Community of Interest." And let?s not forget that earlier this month, a federal judge ruled NSLs unconstitutional.

The recent terrorist plot uncovered in Germany was detected by traditional means. According to Newsweek, "One U.S. intelligence official described the law-enforcement operation as a case of 'good old-fashioned police work.'"

Nevertheless, when Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence, testified [PDF] before Congress on Monday, he cited the German arrests as proof of the importance of conducting electronic surveillance without warrants under the so-called Protect America Act.

We've been receiving a lot of inquiries from people concerned about recent allegations that Comcast is interfering with its subscribers' use of the BitTorrent protocol, perhaps by using an appliance that disrupts BitTorrent sessions. Some of the people contacting us are Comcast subscribers who've had trouble with BitTorrent recently and think that they might be affected by the same problem.

Debugging network problems can be complicated because of the varieties of versions and configurations of client software and the number of places in the network where problems could occur. Most mysterious network errors aren't intentionally caused by anyone. But some ISPs and universities have experimented with appliances that block or disrupt particular traffic, such as VoIP or P2P file-sharing traffic.